In Algeria's civil war, now in its third inconclusive year, there are no front lines, no territorial objectives, no general rules to restrain belligerents—only a war of repression and attrition. Result: a sentiment d'inquietude spreading through France, based on the growing realization that while the Algerian struggle is one the French cannot afford to lose, it is also probably one they cannot win. Also spreading is the feeling that the 380,000-man French army in Algeria, reduced to waging a gloryless ...

For the past six weeks, Pakistan has echoed with ferocious opposition to the CIA's covert drones program that targets al-Qaeda and Taliban militants hiding in the tribal areas along the Afghan border. Ever since Pakistan's army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani issued a rare and fiercely worded condemnation of a March 17 drone strike, his criticism of the U.S. has been repeated by the prime minister, opposition politicians, and media commentators alike. And in that time, the ...

What is homosexuality? Is it curable? Some recent misleading propaganda alleges that homosexuality is an incurable, hereditary condition, and that the homosexual way of life is therefore "normal" for an unspecified proportion of the population. This view has had an assist from Kinsey statistics on the frequency of homosexual acts in youth. Not so says Manhattan Psychoanalyst Edmund Bergler. In Homosexuality: Disease or Way of Life? , published last week, he swiftly demolishes some popular misconceptions. The common definition of ...

Died. Eugene Jolas, 55, New Jersey-born author, poet, and cofounder of the avant-garde Paris literary review transition; of acute nephritis; in Paris. The first to print James Joyce's Work in Progress , transition was also among the first in English with the work of Franz Kafka and Andre Gide . To such U.S. literary expatriates of the '205 as Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Hart Crane, Erskine Caldwell, Kay Boyle, Katherine Anne Porter, Hamilton Basso and William Carlos Williams—all glad ...

To understand Barack Obama's Afghanistan decision, it's instructive to go back to one history-shifting sentence, uttered by his predecessor more than eight years ago. It was Sept. 20, 2001. The nation was in agony, and George W. Bush stood before a joint session of Congress, telling Americans where to direct their rage. "Americans are asking, 'Who attacked our country?'" Bush declared early in his remarks. "The evidence we have gathered all points to a collection of loosely ...

Ever since its victorious, twelve-year guerrilla war against Communist rebels, rubber-rich Malaya has been an eye of calm amidst the storm of Southeast Asia. From its plantations comes 40% of the world's rubber, and scores of new schools and factories give evidence of its quietly booming economy. But for some time Malaya has cast a wary eye at the spread of Communist influence directly to the south. On the island state of Singapore, Red-lining extremists threaten to topple the local government, and the British-run territories of Sarawak, ...

Investors are courting an old flame: bond mutual funds. But how sincere are their intentions? The relationship sputtered in 1994, when bond funds logged their worst year in six decades and investors fled the church in a panic. Now they're back for another fling. In January net new cash flowing into bond funds surged to an estimated $11.5 billion--the most since August 1993. The disturbing thing is that people probably don't understand this fickle mate any better today than they ...

The Rev. William Hart McNichols is gay. He is also a Roman Catholic priest in Taos, N.M. There is no paradox there, according to church teachings. Technically, it is homosexual activity — not the orientation — that is considered sinful. Nevertheless, McNichols will surely get hate mail and risk losing his ability to minister by stating his sexuality in the pages of this magazine. He has said it publicly before, so he knows. "Talking to you," he told me last ...

Reports of a thaw in Egyptian-Iranian diplomatic ties has created a stir in the Middle East, particularly in Egypt and its neighbor, Israel. Indeed, even as Egypt struggles to iron out its own emerging political system after the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak, Cairo's foreign policy is also undergoing a sea change. "If you look at Egypt over the last 20 years, it just hasn't played a very serious role in the foreign affairs of the region," ...

Need another reason to feel guilty about feeding your children that Happy Meal — aside from the fat, the calories and that voice in your head asking why you can't be bothered to actually cook a well-balanced meal now and then? Rajendra Pachauri would like to offer you one. The head of the U.N.'s Nobel Prize–winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Pachauri on Monday urged people around the world to cut back on meat in order to ...